Here?
On the bed?
On the bed!!!!
Yun Li wasn’t a child—her mind immediately conjured up all the vivid imagery. She seriously considered the matter. They hadn’t been together for long enough. With an unyielding tone, she said, “We’ll entertain that idea later.”
“...”
Fu Shize had already closed his eyes, but at her words, he opened them again, burying his face in her hair. “Not just entertaining the idea. I want to treat you well from now on.”
Holding her in his arms, his mind replayed the scenes of her encountering trouble, an indescribable suffocation gripping him.
Though exhaustion weighed heavily on him, sleep eluded Fu Shize. He got up to take a shower. As the hot water cascaded over him, he recalled the gift Fu Dongsheng had specially gone out to buy for Yun Li.
It was an utterly ordinary thing—many parents would give a gift when meeting their son’s partner for the first time.
Yet this simple act made him realize that even such commonplace gestures would have been difficult for him to provide for Yun Li in his past state.
He might have ended up hurting her repeatedly, no different from that deranged stalker in essence.
After the shower, Fu Shize realized he hadn’t brought any clothes in. Frowning, he wrapped a towel around himself.
When he returned to the room, Yun Li was still there, examining the Scent Diffuser on the bedside table.
“...”
He’d forgotten about that.
“You’re done showering. This Scent Diffuser...” Yun Li turned her head and saw his bare chest, water droplets still dripping from his hair onto his body and the floor. His eyes, softened by the moisture, carried a rare gentleness.
“The guy was arrested by the police. I went to retrieve it,” Fu Shize said nonchalantly, walking to the wardrobe to grab a set of pajamas.
Yun Li was momentarily stunned, her gaze fixed on Fu Shize’s back. Beads of water clung to his overly pale skin. He turned his head slightly, his damp hair brushing against his cheek. Yun Li stared unblinkingly as a droplet trailed down his neck to the hollow of his collarbone, then further down his chest and abdomen, disappearing beneath the white towel.
“Haven’t seen enough?” Holding the pajamas, his voice was teasing. “Come closer for a better look.”
Flustered, Yun Li covered her eyes with her hands. “I’ll leave now.”
Only after looking her fill did she cover her eyes.
Only she would do something like that.
“No need.” At his words, Yun Li froze in place, merely turning around. The sound of him changing clothes came from behind her.
Her heart pounded wildly. Moments later, he handed her a towel and sat on the edge of the bed.
“Help me dry my hair?”
Yun Li moved behind him. From her vantage point, she could see the open collar of his shirt. Slowly drying his hair, she said with exaggerated propriety, “You didn’t button your shirt properly.”
“At 5:17 p.m. today, someone said they wanted to be the person who knows me best.” Fu Shize calmly repeated her words, pulling her hand to his collar. “Don’t you want to know me now?”
“...”
Yun Li remained even calmer than him, fastening the top button from behind.
She continued drying his hair gently, her movements light. The towel blocked Fu Shize’s vision, but he could feel her warmth behind him. The room was quiet, the earlier tension melting into this moment of tenderness.
He lowered his head, reaching up to take her hand and bringing it to his lips for a kiss.
In high spirits, Yun Li finished drying his hair and pointed at the drones. “Are these all models?”
“No, they’re all real.” Seeing her interest, he said indulgently, “You can play with them if you like.”Each of these looked quite expensive, and Yun Li didn’t dare to play with them. Remembering how the robot video had been labeled as a comedy, she now had an additional tag as a "funny content creator."
Having studied science and engineering, Yun Li occasionally thought of making tech-related videos. She asked, "Can I borrow these drones to make a video? I might need your help."
"Mm." Fu Shize touched her lower lip. "Any reward?"
He never missed an opportunity. Yun Li replied awkwardly, "I might not necessarily need your help."
He smirked slightly, pretending not to hear her words. Understanding his implication, Yun Li hesitated for a moment before saying, "My brother appears in my videos without asking for a reward..."
Having witnessed how domineering she could be with Yun Ye, Fu Shize couldn’t help but remark, "He wouldn’t dare to ask."
"..."
"So, any reward?"
"..."
They had already engaged in many intimate acts. Yun Li weighed the situation and figured it wasn’t a loss, so she agreed casually, "Fine, then."
"Can I get an advance?" He pointed to his lips. "A kiss here."
"..."
After indulging in affection for a while, Yun Li recalled his earlier comment and tried to salvage her image. "I’m not that domineering with my brother."
Fu Shize played with her hair. "You’re not domineering." Remembering their conversation at the hospital that afternoon—how she would double-check before asking him anything, completely different from how she acted with Yun Ye—he felt it was unfair to her. After a pause, he said, "Lili, no matter what you do or say, my feelings for you won’t change because of it."
Yun Li looked up at him.
"You can be a little more domineering with me."
His calm gaze gave her endless encouragement. After a moment, she slowly asked, "That campus card I asked you about last time—whose was it?"
"..."
Fu Shize’s fingers, which had been playing with her hair, froze.
The atmosphere instantly turned stiff.
Yun Li sensed keenly that she had asked something she shouldn’t have.
"My childhood friend’s. He passed away." His tone was flat as he continued toying with her hair, trying to distract himself. "So I don’t like talking about him."
Yun Li stiffened upon hearing this. She immediately sat up straight and stammered, "I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I shouldn’t have—"
"Lili." Fu Shize interrupted her, squeezing her hand. "No need to apologize."
He continued, "You should know about it anyway."
Feeling like she had carelessly reopened his wound, Yun Li lowered her head in silence. A hand covered hers, gently ruffling her hair in comfort. Fresh from a shower, his hand felt warmer than usual.
Yet Yun Li’s eyes reddened.
In an unfamiliar environment, Yun Li found it hard to sleep. She tossed and turned for a long time, reflecting on her personality—her fear of interacting with strangers, her indecisiveness, and her tendency to overanalyze others’ words and actions.
It wasn’t necessarily bad—after all, she had lived this way for years. But most of the time, it didn’t lead to good outcomes.
Especially tonight.
Tears fell onto the pillow as she felt she had hurt Fu Shize.
Not wanting to wallow in self-pity, Yun Li started a livestream in the middle of the night.
Many of her fans were night owls, and the viewer count soon rose to several hundred. She picked a few messages to respond to.
"Why are you livestreaming so late? —Missed you all.""The salted fish hasn't updated in ages—well, since it's called a salted fish, might as well find a chance to flip over someday."
"Made up with the coffee shop guy yet?—We're dating now, no need to worry."
This statement caused an uproar, with a flood of "Aaaaaa our wife is gone" comments in the chat. Yun Li found it amusing: "Don't worry, for now, the streamer is still everyone's wife." She paused, "But that might change in the future."
Not forgetting her original intention, Yun Li cleared her throat: "Everyone, I need to ask a favor—"
"The streamer wants to work on her social skills. Let's chat, everyone."
This interaction was admittedly a bit odd, but many fans eagerly volunteered to join the voice chat. Surprisingly, the fans were even more timid than her, forcing her to take on the role of conversation facilitator.
After an hour, she unexpectedly felt a sense of accomplishment from socializing, allowing her to fall asleep peacefully.
...
Fu Shize's insomnia showed little improvement. Waking at 2 a.m., he found himself unable to sleep again. Opening the drawer, he saw several types of sleeping pills inside. Remembering Yun Li, he silently closed it without a word.
Knowing sleep wouldn't come, he went to the balcony to clean up the leftover cigarette butts and liquor bottles.
His parents had sent numerous messages, mostly about eating well and taking care of himself. Only the most recent one stood out: "Now that you have a girlfriend, remember you can only take care of her if you take care of yourself first."
His downward spiral had lasted nearly two years—so long he'd forgotten what a normal life looked like.
But spending the past month with Yun Li, cooking for her, being with her every day, he'd rediscovered that his life could return to normal.
He wanted to take care of her too.
He wanted to give her a normal life.
As if answering his own thoughts, he picked up his phone and replied to his father with a simple "Mm."
His relationship with his parents had always been distant. Though deep down there was love, Fu Shize wasn't accustomed to communicating with them.
After some hesitation, he sent them a photo of himself with Yun Li.
A little past six, Fu Shize went to the 24-hour convenience store downstairs to buy breakfast.
When Yun Li woke up, Fu Shize was already in the living room. On the table were milk, toast, and a fried egg.
The balcony curtains and floor-to-ceiling windows were wide open, sunlight streaming in, making the balcony spotless and bright.
Glancing at her watch, she saw it was 8:30.
"I was supposed to be the one taking care of your meals..."
Fu Shize reheated the fried egg in the microwave and placed it before her: "Who takes care of whom—it makes no difference."
"Oh, the gift your parents gave me was a necklace," Yun Li took a sip of milk. "It's a bit too expensive. I feel bad accepting it."
"They like you. Keep it." Fu Shize tore the toast into smaller pieces for her. Yun Li felt like an overgrown baby and resisted slightly: "I can do it myself—"
"What did your parents say?" Yun Li was genuinely happy to have their approval. Fu Shize replied, "They just said you're nice and told me to take good care of you."
Then, as if afraid she'd think it wasn't his own idea, he added, "But me wanting to take care of you has nothing to do with them."
After breakfast, Fu Shize took Yun Li around the South River Garden area. Having grown up there, he remembered every shop as it was over a decade ago.
They had lunch out before returning to South River Garden. Her phone buzzed, and Yun Li picked it up to check.Yin Yucheng: [Yun Li, I can pick up your brother this afternoon.]
Yin Yucheng: [I have two movie tickets for 7 PM tonight. Yun Yi has tutoring, so it’d be a waste if they go unused.]
Yun Li guessed he wanted to check on Yun Ye in person and replied: [Then I’ll ask Yun Ye if he wants to go.]
Yin Yucheng: [I’ve been wanting to watch this movie. Would you like to come along?]
Yun Li froze for a moment.
This meaning… Yun Li thought it over again and became increasingly convinced that he meant exactly what she suspected.
She carefully recalled and confirmed that he had seen her with Fu Shize last year.
She stared blankly at the screen for a while until Fu Shize noticed and glanced at her. Yun Li handed him her phone, and after scanning the messages, he remarked coolly, "Planning to poach?"
"I’ll just decline," Yun Li said, taking back her phone and typing [No, thanks.]
"Wait." Fu Shize stopped her from sending it, took the phone back, tapped a few times, and hit send.
[My boyfriend doesn’t approve of me going out alone with other guys. Sorry about that.]
[You’ve met my boyfriend before.]
Looking at the chat interface, Yun Li felt nothing but extreme awkwardness.
In the past, she had deleted any men who showed ambiguous interest in her. But with Yin Yucheng, she hesitated.
She asked Fu Shize, "Should I delete him? This feels so awkward."
Fu Shize glanced at her. "Delete."
She tapped the delete button but then canceled it, turning to Fu Shize again.
"But Yun Ye has a crush on his sister. If I delete him, they might think I’m hard to get along with."
"…"
"If they take it out on Yun Ye, wouldn’t I be ruining his lifelong happiness?"
"…"
"And maybe he didn’t mean it that way. Maybe he just wanted someone to watch the movie with."
"…"
Yin Yucheng hadn’t replied yet. Yun Li sat there, agonizing over it while listing several plausible excuses.
She muttered to herself for a while, while Fu Shize leaned back on the sofa, watching her lazily. Suddenly, he let out a laugh, his tone devoid of warmth. "Sure."
Yun Li looked up. "Huh?"
"Deleting my WeChat was so straightforward back then."
"…"
A grievance from ages ago was suddenly brought up, leaving Yun Li stunned. She forced herself to stay calm, taking a sip of water before awkwardly admitting, "So you knew. Why didn’t you bring it up before?"
Fu Shize gave her an unsparing look.
So, he had known, hadn’t called her out, but now he was holding a grudge.
"It wasn’t that straightforward," Yun Li defended weakly. Fu Shize crossed his arms, waiting for her to continue.
After thinking carefully, she added, "I hesitated for a while before deleting you back then…"
"…"
Fu Shize laughed in exasperation.
Just then, Yin Yucheng replied: [My apologies, I misunderstood some things. Let Fu Shize take you to pick up Yun Ye then. You can have the movie tickets if you’d like.]
"Quite generous," Fu Shize remarked.
Yun Li, still on high alert, cautiously asked, "So… should I still delete him?"
Fu Shize didn’t seem angry. "No need."
Even so, for the rest of the afternoon, Fu Shize spoke little. Their interactions felt no different from usual, yet something lingered beneath the surface.
Yun Ye arrived in Nanwu at 3 PM. Seeing the two of them waiting at the airport, he nearly turned to stone.
His understanding of Yun Li’s romantic life was still stuck on her failed pursuit—how had she ended up in a relationship just one semester later?Yun Li and Yun Ye chatted the whole way, with Fu Shize dutifully playing the role of driver. Upon arriving at the apartment, Yun Li used the projector to play a movie for Yun Ye while she went to the kitchen to slice apples.
Yun Ye followed her, finally having a moment alone with his sister. He was utterly frustrated. "How come you didn't even tell me you were dating someone?"
"Stop meddling in grown-up matters."
Yun Ye pressed, "Did you spend New Year's with him?"
Yun Li shot him a look. "So what if I did?"
"Putting romance before family!" Yun Ye fumed, snatching at her phone. "Give me back my New Year's red envelope."
"In your dreams."
The two wrestled in the kitchen, the commotion drawing Fu Shize to the doorway.
"Brother," Yun Ye immediately toned down his antics, greeting him before scurrying off to the living room.
She had tied on an apron. For a long time, it had been Fu Shize who cooked, and the last time she had seen this view of his back was weeks ago.
Fu Shize closed the kitchen door behind him and moved closer to Yun Li. His body heat became abruptly distinct, while the sound of Yun Ye’s movie played in the background. Worried Yun Ye might walk in, Yun Li whispered, "I..."
His arms encircled her waist as he pressed a slightly punishing kiss to her cheek. "What's wrong?"
Yun Li: "...Nothing." She fell silent, focusing on slicing the apples on the cutting board.
"You deleted me," he said, still carrying a trace of annoyed amusement after being ignored the entire ride. "And now you're still not taking the initiative."
OpenNovel